But a similar optimism also swelled 25 years ago, when the film adaptation of Amy Tan’s novel “The Joy Luck Club” arrived in theaters to lines around the block in cities like New York and Los Angeles. The movie was greeted with enthusiasm from critics, who lauded the nuanced portrayal of four middle-aged Chinese immigrant mothers and their Americanized daughters.

Many of the actresses, as well as the director Wayne Wang, began receiving high-profile offers. “I thought it would be a new beginning for Asian-Americans,” Rosalind Chao, who played Rose in the film, said in an interview.

But roadblocks proved shockingly resilient. Instead of ushering in a crop of Asian-American projects, “The Joy Luck Club” remained a token for more than two decades — until “Crazy Rich Asians” became the next Hollywood blockbuster to feature a contemporary story with an all-Asian cast.

In the wake of #AsianAugust, Mr. Wang, Ms. Tan, and five of the movie’s actresses — Ms. Chao, Lisa Lu, Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita and Ming-Na Wen — reflected on the challenges and prejudices they faced before and after “The Joy Luck Club” and whether they believe “Crazy Rich Asians” truly signals a new era.

A long history of screen stereotypes

Before “The Joy Luck Club,” Asian characters with depth in Hollywood were few and far between. There were martial artists (often played by Bruce Lee), caricatures (Long Duk Dong in “Sixteen Candles”) or yellowface roles (Mickey Rooney’s I. Y. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”).

Lisa Lu, who played An-Mei, one of the mothers in “The Joy Luck Club,” experienced these archetypes first hand. When she acted in a China-set 1958 episode of “Shirley Temple’s Storybook,” she was relegated to second fiddle while a white woman, Judith Braun, played the lead role in yellowface. “I was frustrated when I was in Hollywood because there was no script that really describes the Chinese as they are,” Ms. Lu said in an interview.

Decades later, the “Joy Luck Club” daughters faced similar prejudices. Tamlyn Tomita, who plays Waverly in the film, described many of her early television and film roles as: “She’s a loose girl; she’s a girl from the wrong side of the tracks with a heart of gold.”

Rosalind Chao took on roles like a laundryman’s daughter in a Lucille Ball TV series and a docile Korean bride who talked about eating dogs in “M*A*S*H” and “After MASH.” “Asian-American women were objectified,” she said. “Pretty was really all that they cared about.”

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Ms. Tan said that after the release of “The Joy Luck Club,” Disney offered to adapt her second novel, but she pulled out of talks.CreditAlberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

‘My green card to Hollywood’

The characters in the novel “The Joy Luck Club,” which arrived in 1989, were a welcome contrast. They celebrated family bonds as they struggled with high expectations, psychological trauma and cultural differences. “When I read the book, it was the first time I felt someone was writing about my life,” Ms. Wen, who plays June, said.

While almost every movie studio passed on the project, Mr. Wang, Ms. Tan and the screenwriter Ronald Bass struck pay dirt with Jeffrey Katzenberg at Walt Disney Studios, who granted the team a $10 million budget and full creative control. The film was received warmly by critics and performed respectably at the box office, easily making back its budget on the way to a total of $32.9 million.

The positive effects were almost immediate. Lauren Tom, who plays Lena, was quickly cast as Ross’s love interest in “Friends,” after one of the show’s producers saw the movie. Ms. Wen voiced the title character voice in Disney’s “Mulan” and nabbed other roles.

Mr. Wang’s stature also took off. On the day of the film’s opening, he recalled receiving a phone call from Harvey Weinstein, who agreed to finance his next project, “Smoke,” on the spot. (Mr. Wang says he wasn’t aware of Mr. Weinstein’s predatory behavior, but that working with him was difficult: “He was obviously a bully of some kind.”) Mr. Wang would go on to direct diverse films like “Maid in Manhattan,” with Jennifer Lopez, and the family drama “Because of Winn-Dixie.”

“It’s so easy in this industry to be pigeonholed,” he said. “I didn’t want to get stuck.”

Audition doors stay shut

As Mr. Wang broadened his reach, he also tried to pitch Asian-American films to studios — without success. While his large ideas, like an adaptation of “West Side Story” set in Chinatown, were rejected, so were his more modest efforts to place Asian characters in his films. “I would always say, ‘I know this character wasn’t written for an Asian, but why can’t we take a good Asian actor or actress and put them in that role?’ ” he said. “And that would always be a fight that I couldn’t win.”

The four daughters in “The Joy Luck Club” eventually found themselves competing against each other for the few paltry film roles available to Asian women; they mostly moved to TV, doing short arcs on shows like “ER” and “The West Wing.”

“A lot of my friends who were white, and were the same age and a similar type, they would get called in,” Ms. Tom said of film auditions, “but my agent could not get me in the room.” She eventually found stable work in voice acting, with characters like Amy Wong in “Futurama,” which she said she found freeing: “It didn’t really matter what age you were, what you looked like or what gender, even.”

Perhaps the biggest opportunity that Hollywood offered to a “Joy Luck” alumni was to Ms. Tan herself. After the film’s release, Disney offered to adapt her sophomore novel, “The Kitchen God’s Wife,” as a live action feature, Ms. Tan said in an interview. But she pulled out of talks in order to focus on her novel writing.

That solitary work suited her better than the film industry, Ms. Tan said, which often forced her into compromises she refused to make. She recalled pitching one Asian-driven idea to Amy Pascal — the former Sony studio head — who instead suggested they shoot a Shanghai romance starring Lucy Liu and Matthew McConaughey and tailored to the Chinese box office. Ms. Tan declined.

“It would be horrible, and I would regret it,” she said. “Everybody gets their finger in the pie, and they turn it into mush.”

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Lisa Lu, center, as Nick’s stern grandmother in “Crazy Rich Asians.” She also played one of the mothers in “The Joy Luck Club.”CreditWarner Bros.

TV helps to turn the tide

Before “Crazy Rich Asians” arrived this summer, the tide had already begun to change for Asian actors and directors.

A boom era of television has led to both the production of culturally insightful shows like “Fresh Off The Boat” and the awarding of roles to a diverse pool of actors. Three of the “Joy Luck” daughters, for instance, are currently part of the casts of successful TV shows: Ms. Wen on “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Ms. Tom on “Andi Mack” and Ms. Tomita on “The Good Doctor.”

In the film industry, the presence of Asian executives at major studios — like Kevin Tsujihara at Warner Bros. — and the increased power of the Chinese box office has led to the creation of more Asian-centric stories. One is the live action adaptation of “Mulan,” which will feature Ms. Chao as the title character’s mother.

And Ms. Lu, who is now 91 years old, forged a direct link between the two eras when she starred in “Crazy Rich Asians” as Shang Su Yi, Nick’s wealthy and stern grandmother. “I’m so happy the picture came out so entertaining, but so moving,” she said.

Last month, many members of the “Joy Luck” cast and creative team gathered for a 25th anniversary celebration of the film in Los Angeles. Afterward, Ms. Tan, Mr. Wang and Mr. Bass discussed the possibility of a sequel. This time, they believe, the film might be supported even more by an Asian-American community, which has learned to mobilize through social media and speak loudly about its accomplishments. That’s a far cry from the approach typified by the character Lindo in “The Joy Luck Club,” who presents her best dish at dinner by insulting it.

“Back then, we were a little more self-critical. As an Asian-American community, we’re starting to realize that self-flagellation only hurts,” Ms. Chao said.

Ms. Tom put it more succinctly: “I don’t think there’s any shutting us up anymore.”